Icarus Wings
by abodo
Summary: The battle with Silver Gospel didn't turn out as planned, not as Tabane planned anyway. Ichika and the girls won, but the Gospel is still on the loose. What of the pilot? The Gospel? Whatever happens, the repercussions may be greater than they thought.
1. Prologue: Angel Fall

_**Prologue: Angel Fall**_

In the darkness, one can normally find silence. However within this night is not silence. There is noise, much much noise. The rumble of explosions, thunder of gunfire and the resonance of clashing blades. Wind itself screamed as metal bodies ripped through them. A hundred meters above the face of the sea were seven machines.

"Houki! Be careful! It's closing in on you!"

"I see it!"

SHHHRAAAK!

It almost sounded like slicing flesh. One silver machine fell, releasing the crimson one in its grasp. One of its wings of light dispersing into little patches after being cut off. It quickly lost altitude and recovered brilliantly, a new wing replacing the dispatched.

"Doesn't it get tired of doing that?", the high-pitch scream of a young girl screeched, "Eat this!". A volley of hyper-accelerated superheated air followed this declaration. It slammed into the silver machine, causing it to stagger for a moment.

A sweep of its great wings cleared away the residual gases. One flap was all it took for it to retaliate with a volley of its own.

"Ling-san!"

A blue machine streaked across the battlefield and smashed into the violet machine piloted by the screeching girl. Water splashed everywhere when the bullets impacted harmlessly into the water.

"Ah, thanks Cecilia."

"It's coming."

Both of them braced themselves as the silver machine descended like an avenging angel. Its wings were glowing with far more energy than moments ago and they were only saved by the intervention of their own angel.

"Get out of there!", a young man swooped in with his white machine and its sword lit aglow. The silver angel, still remembering that it was the same weapon that had hurt it before, reversed its boost to reach a halt. The beam blade missing it by inches.

"Ichika-san, get down!", Cecilia commanded. She brought her Starlight Mk. III beam rifle to bear. It only took a second to get a lock before she fired.

The silver machine dodged easily but it was kept off balance by the shots that followed. All the while the white machine that had damaged it was weaving around the energy bolts with ease, almost as if the beams were dodging the white machine while aiming for the silver one. The silver machine was so busy with the closing enemy and suppressive fire that it was too late to heed the warning that beeped in its HUD. The metal slugs smashed into its back, the impact minimized by the shields.

"Get in there Ichika!"

"Keep it up Laura-san!", Houki, in her crimson machine returned into battle. Her angle of attack from beneath the silver machine.

Stuck, that one word summed up the situation the silver machine was in. It quickly analyzed the risks and decided it would have to take a few hits to get out of greater danger quickly. The wings of light grew bright and it spun. Light within the wings shot out, as if pulled by centrifugal forces. They rained down on Rin, Cecilia and Houki.

"Everyone!", Laura, who was too far away to be affected by the barrage, continued to fire with renewed fervor. However that fervor was to work against her and her friends.

"Gospel!", roared Ichika as he rushed at the overwhelming foe in anger. He pushed his thrusters to the limit and engaged double ignition boost. The speed was too much for even the AI pilot of the Silver Gospel to react in time. Ichika swung down with his Yukihira.

All according to plan, Silver Gospel spun away from taking a disabling hit. Losing one wing and having the other close to being hacked off, it reached out and grabbed Ichika's machine, Byakushiki. They plummeted a few meters before new wings replaced the damaged ones on Gospel. It pushed Ichika in the path of Laura's fire and used him as a human shield.

The shells impacted and Laura could only scream, "ICHIKA!".

Gospel charged forward, keeping Ichika in front like a riot shield. Laura couldn't fire in fear of hitting him. The silver machine kicked the white captive towards the black rabbit looking one. Back-flipping with a flourish, it swept back its wings to release a wave of energy shots.

That plan was foiled when alarms blared in the Gospel's hood. A lock from above. It quickly discharged its weapons towards the aggressor. Energy met buck shots in an angry explosion. Some of the energy shots got through the debris and smashed into the shooter. Smoke cleared and revealed a heavily armored orange Rafael Revive II. "Laura-chan! Get Ichika and regroup!", the blonde pilot released the shields used to block and summoned a pair of .61 caliber Garm sub machine guns. She charged forward with both automatic weapons spitting lead.

"I got it!"

Gospel took a moment to analyze the orange unit. The rafael had previously been classified as a low priority threat along with the black unit due to their low mobility. Even the black unit had a appreciable offensive capability, the Revive seemed to only have conventional weaponry. But looks were deceiving, the Gospel quickly realized that the Revive may have been slow and relatively weak in firepower, but it made up for those shortcomings with skill, endurance and massive amounts of ammunition.

The realization came much too late as it was dancing to the orange Rafael's pace as round after round of gunfire herded it to a decisive shot. It never seemed to end as accuracy was not the only skill the Rafael pilot was gifted with. It seemed she was also well aware of how to manage her munitions, evident with how she alternated between her guns in keeping a stream of fire and reloading.

Damage was reaching critical and it was still nowhere near erasing the obstructions to its escape. The Gospel judged the dangers of being followed too great and risked to stay longer. It dove down, ignoring the stray rounds that embedded themselves in its armor. The silver machine pulled up just feet above the water and pelted it with energy bolts. Torrents of water gushed up and the blonde pilot of the Rafael lost sight of her target. She quickly stopped firing into the tower of water and tried to re-establish visual contact with it again. But by the time she saw, it was too late. The gospel was standing with its wings over its head and a large ball of light above it.

Pale at the sight of such danger, the Rafael pilot disengaged her weapons and pressed her shields to maximum, hoping they would hold.

The orb of light pulsed above the gospel. It fired right at the orange unit but its aim went off when something hacked off one of its wings, destabilizing the attack.

"Charlotte! Are you alright?", it was Rin and she'd just thrown her Souten Gagetsu in a bid to save the French representative candidate from being vaporized.

"I-I'm alright.", Charlotte replied after assessing the damages. Even though it just grazed her, it took away a good fifth of her shield energy and melted one of her shield add-ons. Such was the power of that weapon. "This is getting dangerous, we need to finish this now.".

"Karaware!"

A large red blade-shaped beam cut into the gospel while it was trying to regenerate its lost wing. The red unit belonging to Houki, Akatsubaki rushed the weakened enemy from the front, both blades slashing in an X-pattern. It was blocked but the force behind it sent the Gospel skidding over the water before it could regain its bearings.

Houki pulled back the other katana, Amatsuki. "We'll try it again. I'll hold it down Ichika."

"Understood.", Ichika took flight from the small islet where he was recuperating. "Byakushiki is recharged thanks to Akatsubaki's Kenran Buto. I can go any time. Everyone, we'll finish this and eat breakfast together.".

"Yeah!" "Yes!" "Definitely!" "Ofcourse!"

"Amatsuki!"

Bolts of red energy shot down like a localized meteor shower towards the Gospel. It was severely weakened now with its shield barely keeping together and even the ability to regenerate its wings of light seemingly lost. But it wasn't going down without a fight, it surged forward with only a wing and a half, performing a barrel roll. It kicked up water again which was vaporized but Amatsuki.

Gospel believed it got through the worst of it but that was not so, Houki was following behind Amatsuki's blast and was already in range to slash the silver machine. Preserving what little strength left, the Silver Gospel went limp and let itself drop backwards before jetting away from the diagonal kesagiri. Awaiting it after were the blonde duo of Cecilia and Charlotte.

"Let's go!", the two of them cried out along with their guns. Cecilia managing to fire as rapidly as Charlotte who was armed with a garm in one hand and a .62 Rain of Saturday shotgun.

The Gospel tried to weave through the shots but the vast number to dodge and the distraction of water underneath sent flying by missed shots was just too much. Bullets slammed against the scant armor, their effectiveness limited by the breaking energy shield. One of the Blue Tear's, Cecilia's machine's, energy shots managed to place itself right into the Gospel's back but absolute defense activated and prevented any serious damage. Silver Gospel hit the water surface again for a moment but righted itself to keep from submerging. Focusing whatever energies it had, it gunned its thrusters and pushed away from the ground and firing range of the two IS.

Awaiting the Gospel was Rin, who grabbed tightly onto the silver machine before it could fly away.

"Don't think you're going anywhere!", she screamed as her Ryuhou, heat diffusion cannons fired point blank. It landed, sending the Gospel flying.

Instead of trying to regain balance, the remaining left wing charged and fired a salvo to its four. The energy shots impacted with railgun shells.

"Go now!"

"I won't waste your effort Laura-san!"

Houki descended with only one of her two katanas out. Silver Gospel was stuck in an awkward position with no way to defend itself. The blow hit solidly, partially activating the absolute defense again to protect the pilot inside.

There seemed to be no hope left for the silver machine. It was spiraling out of the sky, desperately fixing its axis to keep from smashing into the ground.

_Somebody... anybody... save this person!_

Gospel reached out one hand as if it was expecting someone to take hold.

An arm reached out and grabbed the extended limb. "I got you!", Ichika shouted out to the silver machine.

No movement came from Silver Gospel. Ichika gingerly deactivated his yukihira and pulled the half-trashed machine closer. Right hand grabbing hold of the hand that was caught with the Setsura armed left. He pulled the silver body closer and reached out with his left to support the weight.

Houki suddenly screamed, "Ichika look out!"

At the touch of Setsura against its torso, Silver Gospel snapped awake again. Wings of light unfurling with an abnormal shine, as if drawing energy from something that was beyond it moments ago. Ignoring the damage it sustained moments ago, it gripped Ichika's face in its large hand.

Instinctively, Ichika pushed against the Gospel. He engaged Setsura's energy claw and stabbed it right into the Gospel's mid-section. It twitched and writhed as if it was in pain, but even so, the wings of light began to close in on Ichika.

"Just a little more!"

_Just a little more!_

Those words resonated in Ichika's mind and he roared a battle cry, "Go!"

"Ichika!", Houki screamed as she flew closer.

The wings devoured Byakushiki and two bodies converged upon the water as one mass of light. The girls were horrified at the scene, and soon more so as their vision was blinded white.

On that day, an explosion rocked western Japan. No one was made aware of why the explosion happened. Many assumed it to be IS but were ignored in favor of public confidence in the laws that protected them from IS abuse. Some believed it was a failed terrorist plot. Others believed it was testing for a new anti-IS weapon. Though a few who witnessed it believed themselves to have seen an angel fall.


	2. Prologue: Sorrows from the Other Side

_**Prologue: Sorrows from the Other Side**_

Lyon stared straight up at the sky. He was lying down on the school roof and that was definitely against school rules, but he didn't care. The roof was one of the places where he was free. No one bothered him up here and he was happy with that. Under the shade of the water tower, he watched the clouds up above trail by. A magazine sporting a woman in high-tech armor known as the IS featured on the center manifold was just within arms reach. Some parts of the picture were encircled in highlighter, mostly random parts of the machine than anything else.

"It's amazing how humans get so inspired when they see the sky. It's wide, it's big and it's high. It reminds people that in this world, there are infinite possibilities, that nothing is impossible. That's why people who look up know that there is always something more for them. But just as it reminds us of the possibilities, it also reminds us of our insignificance in this world, of how small we are to everything else. The sky is blue, the color of sadness and humans try hard to reach for it. They have tried for a hundred years and succeeded to go even beyond that sadness. But what they found was the falsity of that sadness. Instead of the all encompassing blue that they knew, what awaited them was the black emptiness of space."- "such were the thoughts of the golden-haired prince whilst he lay upon the glorious sun warmed marble."

"Junko."

"Yes?"

Lyon sat-up, his golden hair spilling over his shoulders at the sudden act. "Don't make-up other people's thoughts!".

"Ah! He got angry!", a young girl popped out from the door back down to the school. She was the same age as Lyon, classmates actually. Though whether they were friends remained quite unclear. "But I can't help it Lyon. You looked so deep in thought. Like a tragic prince waiting for his princess.", the school girl sighed dreamily.

"I was half-asleep.", Lyon informed her. "Ugh...", the young man scratched his scalp with his right hand. "Guess sleeping on dirt can get you itchy anywhere.". He sighed tiredly and pulled on the band that kept his waist length locks in a pony-tail. Lyon shook his hair free of dirt while fingers deftly combed through to deal with any curls. Noticing something amiss, Lyon turned an eye to the only other person in the vicinity who just happened to have her jaw hanging open.

The look in Junko's eyes seemed catatonic but the outrageous expression she was making pointed otherwise. It took a few moments of silently watching Lyon thoroughly combing through his hair before a reaction took place.

"That is so unfair!", screamed Junko. "Why is it that a guy has such beautiful hair? It's so shiny and bouncy and full and- and- and... Argh!". Junko turned away from the sight of the pale young man with hair practically spun from gold. She squatted down dejectedly while stroking her own cheek length wavy hair. She mumbled unintelligible words of comfort to herself, bursting into fits off giggles every now and then.

Shaking his head pityingly, Lyon could only say, "She's finally lost it... again."

Lyon picked up his copy of Inside Strata, the world's only magazine devoted completely to IS news and info. It was about ten minutes before lunch break ended so Lyon decided that he wanted to show up for class on time for once.

Down the stairs and through the corridors, Lyon navigated the grimy halls as well as if it were home. The young man walked through the dirty passages of the public school. Japan was mostly a well balanced country that even had high standard for its public schools. But now that the women priority law was in effect, it seemed budget normally allotted to public schools were cut in half to invest in more prestigious all-girl schools which would serve as preparatory school for IS academy. Just as the name implied, IS academy was the most famous school in Japan right now for being the only educational institution that had a curriculum specially made to train the next generation of IS pilots.

The blonde was humming to himself as he went through the notes he'd written on the magazine again. It wasn't normally an odd site for a young man to hold a magazine meant for those interested in IS. There were those that just wanted the magazine because the mecha looked so cool, others wanted issues because IS pilots wee usually cute. But Lyon was different-

"I really do think that they should add an actuator here.", Lyon tapped the lower hamstring of the IS leg in the picture. "IS motion without flying isn't really a priority considering the amazing PIC and anti-grav but~..."

Lyon was honestly researching about IS as a scientist would. However, some people didn't see it that way.

Out of nowhere, something hit Lyon upside the head. He was disoriented for a second but in that second the copy of Inside Strata was taken from his hands.

"Well, well; lookit here. Seems like we got a little lezzie on our hands.", the probable perpetrator laughed.

That laugh was familiar, too familiar really. "Haguruma.", Lyon glared at the young man across from himself.

"What's with that look girlie?", Haguruma smirked smugly. "You gonna raise your fists against me again?".

Lyon instinctively clenched his fists and imagined smashing them against the bastard's nose. How badly he wanted to do just that. "I'm not going to fight you.", the shorter of the two males quickly declared.

A look of surprise painted itself on Haguruma's face. "You're not? Or maybe...", he contemplated a bit before a vicious grin that made him resemble a viper nearly split his face, "you can't?".

Ignoring those words, Lyon walked forward and reached out a waiting hand. "Give it back.".

Simple request.

"No."

Simple denial.

"I said give it back!", Lyon screamed.

"And I said no.", Haguruma turned his back on the blonde. He opened the magazine and flipped through the pages. "I mean, this is such an interesting piece of reading material don't you think?". He stopped on the center-manifold with his grin never leaving his face. "You really are a pervert aren't you little lezzie?", he held up the magazine and showed the highlighted circles which were mostly on the machine but some parts of them were... rather suggestive considering the scant covering IS provided.

By this time people were still out in the halls and some were watching the squabble like it was the highlight of their day. Many of them were now pointing and laughing at the picture. Lots of them were whispering to each other.

"Whoa! So he really is into girls! Thank God!"

"I know what you mean. He looks so much like a chick I thought he was gay for a second."

"Hey, I wouldn't really mind. He looks pretty hot."

"Freak."

"Oh my God, what a pervert! I thought it was weird that he looked like a girl."

"Disgusting."

"Ew, ew, ew, even if he is good looking, that's just nasty.

Lyon heard them all but he just gritted his teeth and bore it. He reached out again, "Give it back."

"Oh I will. If you get on your knees and say that you're a tranny.", Haguruma jeered.

"You're crazy. I'm a guy! You know that."

"But you don't look it at all.". Haguruma approached a volatile Lyon with ease in his step. "I mean, you don't only have the pretty face of a girl.", he cupped Lyon's milky cheeks with his free hand. "But you have hair that's the envy of even Venus herself.", he pulled at the blonde youth's tresses and breathed in the scent of sun and flowers that seemed to be seeped into those locks.

That had been the last straw and Lyon reacted to Haguruma's hair-sniffing by trying to nab his magazine back. Haguruma was quick though, pulling back quickly and using the hand the had been holding Lyon's hair to push the blonde away by his face. The sight was somewhat comical to the crowd as Lyon was only 158 centimeters tall. Haguruma's arms were much longer than Lyon's so it was easy to keep the magazine out of reach. The blonde flailed while everyone else laughed at his miserable form. Nobody was going to help him.

Haguruma pushed Lyon away and grabbed one of the smaller boy's wrists. "Also, these hands of yours are way too slender to be a guy's. Maybe you really are a woman in disguise? Or you want to turn into one so you can pilot an IS?".

"Tch!", Lyon wrenched his hand away and started back into the surrounding crowd. "Keep the magazine. I don't want it anymore.".

"I hear you look a lot like your mother."

Lyon's footsteps ceased. He looked back at the smug face of Haguruma with venom in his eyes. "You've already said enough last time. Keep her out of this.", he ground out.

"Oh really?", the dark-haired youth began to pace around Lyon. His hands were fiddling with the magazine in his hands but those cold eyes of his were fixated solely on Lyon's face. "But I don't feel like our previous discussion led to any new breakthroughs at all. After all, I was just trying to help you with you _mommy issues_.".

"Like hell you were.", Lyon hissed angrily at the mocking remark.

"You're not denying you've got mommy issues? Well I figured one would have them if their mother was born from a brothel."

"My mother is nothing like that! She's a good woman!"

"So says you who doesn't have a single memory of her.". The cocky grin on Haguruma's infuriating twitched in acknowledgment in Lyon's unease and took it as a sign to continue his verbal attack. "I mean, really. If one thinks about it, why would a Japanese man take in a foreigner? It's either they're a loser, they couldn't get a respectable woman or both! Hahaha!".

"I'll kill you!", Lyon lunged at the taller boy, but Haguruma just stepped out of the way.

The dark-haired boy raised a finger and wagged it like one would scold a child, "Uh-uh-uh, don't be so hasty. I'm not done yet.". He started tossing the magazine in the air while continuing, "While on the topic. I also heard that your mother left you before you were even a year old. What was that about? Did her instincts as a tramp kick in so soon? Or maybe I should say it was too late?".

"Shut your mouth!"

Haguruma was on his back before he could realize what happened. He felt a dull pain on his face and the area just underneath his nose was sore. He laughed manically at the realization of what just happened. "Wow. From how dainty looking you are, I imagine that most people wouldn't see you as being able to throw a punch like that."

"I told you to shut up!", growled Lyon with a show of the same knuckles that knocked the taller teen down.

"Hmph!", Haguruma stood up from his unsightly position. The young man dusted himself calmly as he muttered, "You're so easy to rile up. Especially when you're hearing the truth.".

"You don't know anything! Don't start spreading lies!"

"Then if I'm wrong. What's the truth?"

It looked as if Lyon was about to say something but suddenly stopped as if thinking better of it. However that looked to be a painful decision as he just stood there in silence.

Haguruma took that silence as a sign of admittance. Laughing out loud, the teen yelled, "See? So I was right after all wasn't I? Your mother was a little foreign toy that your loser dad just happened to pick-up. Then he was too much of a loser so she dumped him for someone else. That about sums everything up doesn't it?".

"Like hell that's the truth...", the shorter boy muttered under his breath.

As if it was difficult to hear, Haguruma cupped his ear and asked patronizingly, "Oh? What was that princess?".

"Like hell that's the truth."

The taller young man threw his hands in the air and yelled, "There's nothing else that could be the truth! Is there a possibility for any other? Face it, your mom is a no good who-"

THWACK!

Lyon didn't let the smug boy finish.

"I dare you to say that again!", Lyon roared with a left that sent Haguruma's head whipping back again. "Come on! Say it!". He punched again, and again, and again, sending the taller boy reeling into the crowd.

To his credit, Haguruma still found it in himself to laugh. He caught one of Lyon's fist in one hand and shouted, "Oh you've done it now!". A grin was on the bigger boy's face. "Better pack your things for that expulsion you were promised before, you little brat!". Haguruma lashed out with his other fist.

Lyon ducked underneath it and pulled Haguruma in a judo flip. The blonde quickly straddled the dark-haired foe to pin him down. "Fine by me!", Lyon declared as he began to punch left and right again.

Haguruma kept his arms up to block the rain of hits. Knowing from past experience that Lyon was pretty light, he forced himself to sit up and slammed Lyon to the ground. "I win!", declaring his victory, Haguruma pelted the petite boy with blows.

Left, right, left, right. It seemed that this continued for another half-minute before Lyon saw his chance to counter attack. Haguruma's fist came flying at the smaller teen who parried the hit and grabbed it to prevent Haguruma from pulling back. The larger boy tried his other hand but Lyon grabbed that as well. Both boys were now in a stalemate, at least that's what most would assume.

Lyon leaned back onto the floor while pulling on Haguruma's arms. This forced the larger teen to double over. The blonde then quickly switched from straddling Haguruma's abdomen to straddling his arms. Crossing his legs, Lyon caught Haguruma's head in a scissor hold.

Things were looking bad for Haguruma, at least until he used whatever he could muster of his rapidly lessening breath to shout, "Get him you idiots!".

Three boys stepped out of the crowd towards the tangled pair. One of them did a baseball slide, knocking the soles of his shoes into the side of Lyon's head before the teen was even aware of what was going on.

The hold on Haguruma was released as Lyon grabbed at his woozy head. Disorientation worsened the throbbing pain that had been ignored until now. What followed was much more painful. Again without knowing what was happenning, Lyon took a hit to his stomach and he could feel his guts trying to regurgitate bile along with the remnants of his last meal. Another hit, this time to the back, sending him rolling all over the floor. Someone stomp on his head which sent his face bouncing off then gracelessly smashed into it again. It hurt badly.

"You really shouldn't have done so much to Haguruma-san.", a bored cocky voice glowered.

"Sh-Shhhuun... yo-u... baasss-tard...", Lyon forced out.

"Shut up, hihihi!"

A kick to the stomach nearly made Lyon faint.

The one who kicked last sat down on his haunches to let Lyon's glassy eyes have a good look of his face. "So... you're the one the gang's been talking about. Sheesh, they were right. You do look like a girl. Gives me the creeps.", he got up and walked away, "You guys take it from here. I've lost all interest.".

"Tch, you leaving Itsuro?"

"It feels really lame to do things like this so later.", Itsuro walked.

"Itsuro!"

"Forget him Maruo.", Haguruma's ragged voice commanded the last boy. "There's really no need for him to be here anymore anyway.". Calm footsteps vibrated against the ground as the gathered crowd continued to buzz in wonder at how this would end. Haguruma lifted one foot and smashed it into Lyon's back.

Lyon convulsed from the pain but Shun's foot dug deeper into his skull. Haguruma continued to stomp and kick while he laughed, "So here we are again eh Lyon? Me up here in the winning team while you're eating the dirt off the floor. Just like I said when we first met."

"_Get acquainted with the floor. You'll be eating off it for the next three years of your life."_

Lyon's fists balled up before trying to push off the ground. The hits to his back and stomach were getting worse but he just ignored them. He got on his knees and tried to push the foot on his head away. The pressure eased for moment enough that Lyon could easily pull away. Before he could get a look at his opponents, another sharp kick hit his chin. He fell on his back, with vision swimming and all pain becoming duller by the second. Darkness was encroaching around all his perceivable sight. He wondered if he was going to die, this was probably the worst beating to date and it hadn't even been ten minutes yet.

"That's enough!", a scream cut through the ruckus.

"Lyon!"

The dazed teen barely recognized the voice. He wondered to himself why that distant voice was so familiar. The face of the one who screamed came into view and he could only grunt out her name as teachers began to handle the situation.

"Jun...ko..."


End file.
